


Could've, Would've, Should've

by pennysparrow



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 01:36:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10934277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennysparrow/pseuds/pennysparrow
Summary: How Harry and Ginny's relationship may have progressed had Voldemort not been around.





	Could've, Would've, Should've

**Author's Note:**

> This was for a prompt someone sent in on tumblr. The original post is here: https://thelittleredheadedmusician.tumblr.com/post/160756167750/do-you-ship-hinny-if-so-could-you-write-a-no

Harry honestly can’t remember the first time he met Ginny Weasley. Some of Harry’s earliest memories consist of flying around the living room on his toy broom, falling asleep using Sirius in his dog form as a pillow, and chasing the gnomes around the Weasley’s garden with Ron and Ginny. As the youngest of the children in their parents’ friend group the three had been inseparable and major mischief causers, with the occasional assistance from Neville. When it was time for the boys to go off to Hogwarts Ginny had stood on the platform surrounded by the adults with silent tears streaming down her face as she waved goodbye. It was the first time that they would be separated since she was born.

***

At Hogwarts, Harry and Ron had found a new companion for mischief making in Hermione. Harry told her daily how much he knew she and Ginny would get along. At the prospect of another Weasley joining her House, Professor McGonagall nearly retired until Professor Lupin assured her that Ginny was much better behaved than her brothers. That was true until she came to the school and joined forces with Ron, Hermione, and of course her best friend Harry Potter. The early years at Hogwarts were a living hell for the professors who had lived through the Marauders and now the Weasley twins and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and occasionally Neville and Luna.

***

For as many headaches as they gave the staff thanks to their penchant for falling into trouble, Harry and Ginny gave twice as many to the opposite team on the Quidditch pitch. Over the years, Ginny rose to be the best chaser on the team, with Harry’s superb seeker skills and the rest of the team’s talent it made Gryffindor unstoppable. It was in Harry’s fifth year after a particularly thrilling match that he found himself wedged next to Ginny on one of the common room’s many worn-in couches. She handed him a Butterbeer and grinned, forcing her freckled nose to scrunch up. “Nicely done, Potter,” she said as she took a swig.

“Nicely done yourself, Weasley,” he replied, matching her smile.

“You two killed it!” Ron said from behind them, leaning over the back of the sofa to throw his arms around their shoulders. 

Laughing Ginny pushed her brother’s arm off of her. “What would you know Ron? You were too busy nearly getting in a fistfight with some Slytherin. You hardly watched the game!”

“Well that’s cause he was bad-mouthing my sister and best mate! And Hermione was right there, she would’ve hexed him had he actually tried anything.”

“Wow Ron. Real brave,” Harry chuckled and took a sip of his Butterbeer.   
Ginny shouldered him with a laugh, nearly knocking the bottle from his lips.

“Don’t say that, Hermione is the brightest witch of her age! You’d be lucky to have her hex someone on your behalf!”

Harry held his hands up in surrender, grinning as Ginny laughed at her bemused brother and best friend. Around them the common room buzzed with voices and laughter, Lee Jordan and Fred and George had started a rousing chorus of some wizard drinking song in the corner. Hermione barely escaped Fred trying to force her to dance as she passed and made her way over to the three on the couch. Neville was not so lucky.

As soon as she was within earshot, Hemione began lecturing Ron on his behavior during the match causing him to go fleeing towards Dean and Seamus on the other side of the common room. Harry and Ginny began cracking up. Ginny laughing so hard she was doubled over with her head falling to rest on his shoulder. As their frames shook Harry threw his arm over her shoulders and set his hand on her head. He stroked her hair as they began to calm down. Head still on his shoulder, Ginny stared up at him through her lashes. A smile still on her lips and the occasional giggle causing her to hiccup. Harry smiled back at her. For how long they sat there, Harry wasn’t sure but he soon felt a blush rising up his neck to color his cheeks. He jerked back, causing Ginny to pull her head off his shoulder in surprise. “Everything ok Harry?” she asked, concern coloring her brown eyes. 

“Yeah. Er- fine. Just uh, need to use the bathroom,” he replied before rushing off.

***

Harry spent the next few weeks avoiding Ginny after that, so much so that going into his sixth year she thought he was mad at her. It wasn’t until she started dating Dean though that things became unbearable for their friends. Ron had confronted Harry about it in between snogging Lavender Brown. Hermione seemed just as miserable as Harry was though and following her rushing out of the common room one night they had a heart to heart. Hermione confessing that she just couldn’t stand the way Ron had been treating her since dating Lavender. As they talked Harry told her about what had happened after the Quidditch match and how he thinks that he may have feelings for her. Hermione merely gave him her trademarked eyebrow raise and he sighed. “Love sucks, Hemione.”

She leaned her shoulder against his, “Yes Harry, it does.”

***

Dean and Ginny broke up, as did Ron and Lavender and before long their friend group returned to a semblance of normalcy. The summer was a whirlwind of commotion as Harry’s parents hosted a huge birthday party for his seventeenth and then it was Bill and Fleur’s wedding. The party saw them laughing at James and Sirius acting out a two-person play of Harry’s greatest Quidditch wins. Without magic, so it mainly consisted of Sirius running around pretending to be a snitch and James chasing after him. Both Lily and Remus denied knowing them. The wedding went incredibly smoothly, for as much as Molly stressed about it. Ginny pulled Harry onto the dance floor every chance she could during the reception. As the guests filtered out Harry found himself collapsed on a sofa in the Burrow. Ginny flopped down on top of him, “My feet hurt. These shoes are cute but even with Hermione enchanting them for me they’re killer.”

“I’m sorry?” Harry replied unhelpfully.

She let out a huff of air and wiggled until she was practically laying on top of him, her shoulder wedged between the back of the couch and his. Her face was only a few inches from his own and he could feel her breath brush his cheek and ear.

“Harry?”

“Er, yeah?”

“Are you happy?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean are you happy? Did you have fun at your birthday? Tonight?”

Harry pulled his head back slightly to try and look at Ginny’s face better. “Course I did. Why?”

Ginny shrugged with the shoulder that wasn’t trapped next to his own. “Honest?”

“Ginny. When are you not honest?” he asked with a smirk.

She chuckled and then her face went serious. “I don’t really know why or when but something changed between us. We’re not as close, or at least it doesn’t feel like we are. I just wanted to know that you’d still tell me if you were happy or not.”

Harry studied her face and her brown eyes stared back at him. “Ginny, I’m always happy when I’m with you.”

She bit her lower lip but it couldn’t stop the smile from slipping out. Harry smiled back and before he realized it they had both closed the gap between them and were kissing. Harry was the first to stop and he blinked up at Ginny who was blushing so much it was hard to pick out her freckles. She reached a hand up to brush some of her red hair out of her eyes. “So… I guess I’m not the only one who feelings are more than friends.”

Harry grinned before moving closer again. “I guess. Wish I wasn’t such an idiot.”

“Sometimes so do I,” Ginny said before closing the gap and kissing him again.


End file.
